Edmonton-based integrator Contava won the 2011 SP&T Security Integrator of the Year competition, sponsored by Anixter Canada, based on an almost total security revamp of Calgary Transit’s light rail system.

Some of the pre-existing camera equipment dated back to the 1980s and was more operational in nature than security-minded, so an upgrade was becoming essential.

“We were looking to replace our CCTV system for our C Train system, which included everything from the back end software — the whole video management system — to the video wall to all of the communications network, the recording devices and the camera themselves,” explains Stephen Hansen, Calgary Transit safety and security manager.

“We went to market to replace the entire system, front to back — new network, new backbone, new control system and a new upgrade connection point to our SCADA systems,” adds Sean Bolli, who was security adviser, corporate security for Calgary Transit at the time and now works as the director of corporate security for Canadian Pacific.

What secured Contava’s place as the project integrator was the sheer volume and quality of the work the company did in response to the RFP. Bolli says the RFP didn’t provide too many specifics about the equipment required; it was more goal and result oriented. “We didn’t really specify what we wanted; we specified how we wanted it to perform,” says Bolli.

Colin Adderley, who submitted Contava’s nomination for the Integrator of the Year on their behalf, was project manager for the transit upgrade. He now works as customer support engineer for Vineyard Networks, in Kelowna, B.C.

“You could tell that (Contava) put a lot of work and thought into (the RFP). For example, you have to think through all the steps when you install a brand new IP network. You’re adding all these cameras and you’ve got to cut over a live operation. One of the things that really impressed us about Contava was they seemed like a fairly smart outfit right at the beginning of the RFP process,” he says.

Throughout the project, Contava produced more than a thousand pages of “pure technical thought,” according to Adderley. “They won the RFP fair and square. They put the work in; they provided by far the most intelligent, best response.”